Understanding User's Continued Participation In Social Virtual Worlds: Exploratory Investigation And Empirical Assessment In Second Life

Emerging social virtual worlds (SVWs) are attracting attention from researchers and practitioners for the benefits they potentially offer to business and other real-life domains. Clearly, the success of a SVW cannot be realized without a sufficient number of persistent participants who adopt and continue using the SVW service. This is especially the case for SVWs that are in the trough of disillusionment facing threats of losing users. However, little work has been done to understand why people adopt and continue using SVWs. In SVW research, although a few studies have investigated the initial acceptance of SVWs, there is still a lack of understanding of SVW users'motivations; there is also a dearth of research on SVW continuance intention and behavior. Existing models in the literature on IS continuance are insufficient to understand SVW continuance because they have overly focused on productivity-oriented variables based on a utilitarian perspective, while substantially ignoring hedonic and social factors. Filling in these gaps, this dissertation aims to: (1) explore individuals'motivations of using SVWs, (2) identify factors and mechanisms affecting SVW users'continuance intention, and (3) understand SVW users'continuance usage behavior.This thesis combines two studies, an exploratory investigation and an empirical assessment, to address the research objectives. Both studies are conducted in Second Life (SL), one of the most typical and popular SVWs. Qualitative data are collected in the exploratory investigation (Study 1) to understand why individuals adopt and continue using SL. First, based on the well-established uses and gratifications (U&G) paradigm, Study 1 identifies individuals'motivations to use SL and categories these motivations into three general U&G types: functional, experiential, and social. In addition, Study 1 explores the reasons for individuals to continue using SL. In general, three types of perceived values (utilitarian, hedonic and social) have a long-lasting impact on SL users'willingness to continue; at the same time, SL users are also"locked in"the virtual world because of three types of irrecoverable resources (tangible investments, procedural investments, and relational capital) that they have invested or developed in past usage.The empirical assessment (Study 2) aims to understand factors and mechanisms affecting SVW users'continuance intention and usage behavior. It contains a longitudinal design whereby quantitative data are collected in two steps. In both steps, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses are conducted to evaluate the measurement model and structural model. In Step 1, based on the literature and the results of the exploratory investigation, an integrated model is developed to understand continuance intention. Cross-sectional data are collected from 464 experienced users from a variety of places in SL to test the proposed hypotheses. The results suggest that, in general, SL users'continuance intention is determined by two contrasting mechanisms: dedication (want to) and constraint (have to). In the dedication-based mechanism, three types of values (utilitarian, hedonic, and social) are critical in predicting users'satisfaction and affective commitment, which then determine continuance intention. Specifically, the impact of utilitarian value on affective commitment has been mediated by satisfaction. In the constraint-based mechanism, service-specific investments (personalization and relational capital) predict calculative commitment which in consequence impacts on continuance intention through affective commitment. Specifically, learning cost is found to be not important for experienced SL users because learning primarily occurs at the early stage of usage. Contrary to our expectation, the direct effect of calculative commitment on continuance intention is statistically significant but negative, probably due to the suppression effect and mediating effect of affective commitment.In Step 2 of the empirical assessment, the focus is switched from continuance intention to continuance usage behavior. Longitudinal data collected from 303 SL users are analyzed to evaluate the nomological network among continuance intention, habit, and self-reported continuance usage behavior (measured by frequency, diversity, and daily usage). The results indicate that continuance usage is not only a function of continuance intention, representing a reasoned action (or planned behavior) mechanism, but also determined to a large extent by habit which represents an automated usage mechanism. The automated behavior (i.e., habit) complements and eliminates the effects of reasoned action (i.e., continuance intention) on continuance usage.This research contributes to the literature on SVW continuance in particular, and IS continuance in general, by providing a comprehensive understanding of SVW acceptance and continuance. This research also provides hints to SVW operators in terms of how to attract and maintain users to achieve sustainability and success. Based on the discussion of the research findings and limitations, a number of directions for future research are offered.